Google Assistant Is Now Available To Many Android Phones

Google’s voice-based digital assistant will soon be available to many latest versions of an Android operating system.

Till today, Google’s Assistant was only available on the Company’s own Pixel phones. The update, like Siri which is available on iPhones, help users to interact with the apps and ask questions. LG was one of the first smartphone manufacturers to bring this feature on its new device known as the G6.

The Google’s Assistant will be available to the users with Android 6.0 Marshmallow or 7.0 Nougat installed on their device. “With this recent update, millions of Android users will now be able to experience this new Google Assistant,” said Gummi Hafsteinsson, product lead for Google Assistant, in a blog post.

But, today other virtual assistants are also available. The Mobile World Congress tech show was held in Barcelona. During this show, Lenovo Moto said that Amazon’s Alexa assistant would be rolling out to the Moto Z phone. This will happen with the help of an alternative back – called as a MotoMod – that Amazon will sell for the Moto Z later this year.

Apart from this, during the CES tech show which was held in Las Vegas last month, Chinese tech giant Huawei revealed that it would include Amazon’s rival Alexa assistant on its smartphones.

‘Natural move’

Google’s Assistant varies from its competitors slightly because it is designed to initiate conversations with users and respond to all follow-up queries.

“It is the natural move for Google to provide its Assistant to as many smartphone users as possible because Artificial Intelligence is the core of Google’s strategy, said tech analyst Ian Fogg at IHS Technology.

Machine learning is the base of Google’s Assistant AI. And, this assistant will become smarter eventually as the number of users will increase.”

During its initial release, Google’s Assistant will be available to English-speaking users in the United States. English-speaking users from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom will receive the update after them. Support for other languages will follow soon, Google said.